Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Kromulent Kimball

Ever read something by a critic

I passed on the sad news [of Margaret Olley's death] to Roger Kimball, the New York art critic, and editor of the New Criterion who first encountered her work in Sydney in 2000. He wrote back: 'I vividly remember her deftly inflected neo-impressionist work: Matisse-like in its orchestration of colour and poignantly expressive of the character and humanity of her sitters. She was the real thing in an age of posturing and ersatz.'Peter Coleman, Australian Notes, The Spectator (no link available)

and thought, this guy is a bloody liar! What this Kimball dude is 'vividly remembering' is apparently a collection of ambiguous nouns, adjectives, and verbs which, when strung together, could be applied to just about any artist, and describe just about any painting, whatsoever. And who writes like that in a letter or email, anyway?

"Vividly executed deftness in a Neo-Matisse like field with orchestral impressions": a work by the late Margaret Olley.